TycheDataGuide:BusinessData
What is Business Data?
Business data provides insight into the creation and life of businesses. "Businesses" can include many types of entities - for-profit companies, non-profit companies, limited partnerships, limited liability companies, various foreign companies and more. Most business data is collected, organized and maintained by individual states in the USA and by provinces and territories in Canada.
Where does it come from?
Business data typically is maintained by a state's Secretary of State office or a similar department. Quick searches such as "statename secretary of state business database download" will provide a good start to identifying where to get data. For example, the State of Florida's website maintains the data downloads and data definitions.
States may have multiple databases of business information - active businesses, foreign businesses, lifetime business registrations (regardless whether the business still exists) and databases focused on particular types of businesses such as LLPs, non-profits and LLCs.
There are Federal resources available to look at business trends. The Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis publishes various views into business data. These may be helpful complements to the individual business data available at the state level.
What are the primary and secondary data elements?
The data elements that can be found in business data include:
- identifiers - one or more unique identifiers used for tracking a business entitiy
- dates - which could include incorporation or filing dates, or dates associated with the transition of a business which could include business closings, business sales, and physical movement of a business
- names - the business name associated with the incorporated entity and any DBAs (Doing Business As...)
- location - the address, city, county or other locational information associated with a business
- classification coding - there are several systems for identifying what a business does including NAICS and SIC
- people - any individuals or groups associated with a business including owners and business leaders
What are questions you can answer with business data?
- How many businesses are being created in a given city or county over time
- How many businesses have any other change of status including closing, moving, selling and more
- How many businesses are being created in a given area that you are studying, e.g. if large infrastructure investments happen in a particular area, what surrounding business activity is being catalyzed
- How does growth or decline in business activity correlate (or not) with other demographic variables or community initiatives
- How many businesses with certain brand names are there and what is there rate of growth (e.g. all Chik-Fil-A restaurants, all Aldi Grocery Stores)
Tips and tricks for using business data
- identifying the type of business by its name is incredibly challenging and, if there is no information that identifies the type of business, we recommend not attempting to determine it yourself.